Nick Berg

Minnesota roofer Jerad Berg has been hunting since he was 14. This weekend, he perpetrated a virtual massacre for a cheering crowd in downtown Chicago -- playing "Big Buck Safari," a version of the popular barroom deer-hunting video game that hosted its world championship Saturday night. A small army of camouflage-clad men -- none sober enough to be trusted with an actual gun -- gathered at District Bar on Ontario Street to cheer on 32 finalists from all over the nation. Berg, 33, bagged a...

Minnesota roofer Jerad Berg has been hunting since he was 14. This weekend, he perpetrated a virtual massacre for a cheering crowd in downtown Chicago -- playing "Big Buck Hunter Safari," a version of the popular barroom deer-hunting video game that hosted its world championship Saturday night. A small army of camouflage-clad men -- none sober enough to be trusted with an actual gun -- gathered at District Bar on Ontario Street to cheer on 32 finalists from all over...

Minnesota roofer Jerad Berg has been hunting since he was 14. This weekend, he perpetrated a virtual massacre for a cheering crowd in downtown Chicago -- playing "Big Buck Hunter Safari," a version of the popular barroom deer-hunting video game that hosted its world championship Saturday night. A small army of camouflage-clad men -- none sober enough to be trusted with an actual gun -- gathered at District Bar on Ontario Street to cheer on 32 finalists from all over...

Minnesota roofer Jerad Berg has been hunting since he was 14. This weekend, he perpetrated a virtual massacre for a cheering crowd in downtown Chicago -- playing "Big Buck Safari," a version of the popular barroom deer-hunting video game that hosted its world championship Saturday night. A small army of camouflage-clad men -- none sober enough to be trusted with an actual gun -- gathered at District Bar on Ontario Street to cheer on 32 finalists from all over the nation. Berg, 33, bagged a...

The international Internet child pornography site that led to the indictment this week of a Joliet man was so sophisticated that it employed devices once used by the Soviet secret police, a federal agent said Thursday. Nick Berg, special agent in charge of the U.S. Customs office in Chicago, said the Internet site, known as the Wonderland Club, operated in such secrecy that access was limited to members who had knowledge of the club's highly complicated access codes. Berg said that...

By Cam Simpson and Stevenson Swanson, Tribune national correspondents. Cam Simpson reported from Washington, with Stevenson Swanson in Pennsylvania. Tribune national correspondent Tim Jones and Tribune news services contributed to this report | May 12, 2004

Islamic militants beheaded a 26-year-old American civilian and on Tuesday displayed a gruesome video of the act, saying he was killed in retaliation for the abuse of Iraqi prisoners by U.S. soldiers. The body of Nicholas Berg, who grew up near Philadelphia, was found on a Baghdad highway Saturday, but the graphic details of his violent death did not become public until Tuesday when an Al Qaeda-affiliated group showed the video on its Web site along with a vow that more killings will follow.

By Cam Simpson and Stevenson Swanson, Tribune national correspondents. Cam Simpson reported from Washington, with Stevenson Swanson in Pennsylvania. Tribune national correspondent Tim Jones and Tribune news services contributed to this report | May 12, 2004

Islamic militants beheaded a 26-year-old American civilian and on Tuesday displayed a gruesome video of the act, saying he was killed in retaliation for the abuse of Iraqi prisoners by U.S. soldiers. The body of Nicholas Berg, who grew up near Philadelphia, was found on a Baghdad highway Saturday, but the graphic details of his violent death did not become public until Tuesday when an Al Qaeda-affiliated group showed the video on its Web site along with a vow that more killings will follow.

The international Internet child pornography site that led to the indictment this week of a Joliet man was so sophisticated that it employed devices once used by the Soviet secret police, a federal agent said Thursday. Nick Berg, special agent in charge of the U.S. Customs office in Chicago, said the Internet site, known as the Wonderland Club, operated in such secrecy that access was limited to members who had knowledge of the club's highly complicated access codes. Berg said that...

A Chicago woman pleaded guilty Monday in federal court to smuggling two-thirds of a pound of heroin from Panama. The charges against Felicha Jackson, 23, stemmed from an ongoing investigation into a drug operation that used babies as decoys, said Nick Berg, special agent in charge of the U.S. Customs Service in Chicago. Jackson did not use an infant as cover. She was arrested March 4 after she arrived at Dallas-Ft. Worth International Airport on a flight from Panama City.

It was Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak who warned last year that a United States invasion of Iraq would "open the gates of hell." It's not clear exactly what Mubarak had in mind, but I suspect it looked a lot like the events of the last few weeks. Beginning with the March 31 murders in Fallujah of four American civilian security contractors, the violence in Iraq has grown in ferocity and wantonness. It reached a new level Tuesday with the posting on the Internet of that...

Minority applications are down 21 percent for the first freshman class to enter the University of Michigan since the U.S. Supreme Court struck down its system for giving admission preference based on race. Overall applications are down 18 percent, but the Ann Arbor, Mich.-based school downplayed the drop. The university stressed admissions figures were compiled as of May 16 and will not be final until October. KERRY STRIKES: Democratic presidential hopeful John Kerry said Thursday that...

Another alleged key figure in the drug smuggling operation that used babies as decoys and hid liquid cocaine inside formula cans was charged Tuesday in the scheme. Leon Holmes, 26, formerly of suburban Crete, was charged with smuggling drugs here from Jamaica by having women, including one college student, swallow cocaine-filled capsules. Holmes was arrested and charged in a Downstate prison where he was serving a 4-month sentence for assaulting a U.S. Customs Service...

While Saudi Arabia's security forces on Friday searched door to door for American hostage Paul Johnson Jr., Al Qaeda terrorists fulfilled their barbaric promise: They beheaded him. And then they posted the photos of their atrocity on the Internet. As news of the crime spread, most Americans reacted with stomach-churning disgust. They had watched anxiously as the terrorists' 72-hour deadline for the Saudis to release Al Qaeda prisoners had passed. All week, they had heard the Johnson family's emotional...

A militant Islamic group with ties to Al Qaeda has released a graphic videotape apparently showing the beheading of an American civilian captured in Iraq, while vowing that more killings will follow as revenge for the abuse of Iraqi detainees by U.S. soldiers at the Abu Ghraib prison. The chilling videotape shows a man in an orange jump suit who identified himself as Nick Berg of Philadelphia, apparently bound, seated on the floor and surrounded by five men wearing black ski masks.